The birds continue to enjoy the food and water that we provide for them. I am not sure whether it is because there are more of them or they are more hungry, but they are going through the seed faster than before we left for vacation. On days that it is 100 degrees or more, the finches also fight for space along the top of the den window. I can only assume it must feel cooler to them there. All of the birds are fun to watch, but there have been a few new developments this week.
Hummingbird
In addition to the large flock of finches, mutliple woodpeckers, many chickadees, brown thrashers and now a very large family of cardinals (just to name a few), we occasionally saw a hummingbird flitting around in the yard. Of course it was not interested in the seed we offer the other birds, so we added a hummingbird feeder which now hangs from the main beam of the patio roof. We don't see it often, but the hummingbird usually makes one or two short visits to the feeder each day. We are guessing it is a ruby-throated hummingbird, since they are among the very few hummingbirds that visit this part of Texas. It is either a juvenile or a female, since we have not seen the ruby throat. I talk as if this is one individual, but some research about their migration indicates these might be multiple individuals on their way south for the winter, destination central America. In any case, the hummingbirds are very camera shy, so no pictures to date.
Hawk
One morning last week the blue jays were making a particularly loud racket. That is not terribly unusual since the jays in our yard are typically quite noisy. However this was loud even for them and just kept going non-stop. I looked out the den window and there was a hawk perched on one of the lower limbs of the ligustrum! Every blue jay in the area was also in the yard screaming at him. He sat there looking around, then flew off. However, he was so big he had to do some maneuvering to get through the limbs of the ligustrum and out of the yard. While this was happening all of the jays were following him and screaming at full volume. I don't know if he was big by hawk standards, but he was huge compared to the other birds and to the space available for flying in our yard. (Typical wingspan for a red-tailed hawk is 43-57 inches.) He can have all of the rats, mice, snakes and I suppose even squirrels that he wants, but I hope he will leave the songbirds alone. Needless to say I was so taken aback by this little drama that I did not get a picture.
Little bandits
The opportunity for getting the hummingbird feeder at the wild bird store was a visit to get new sacks of feed, both tree-nutty that we put in the hanging feeder and safflower seed for the pole feeder. When replenishing the seeds in the feeders late Sunday, we dumped out some of the older feed onto the ground assuming the ground feeding birds (of which there are many) and the squirrels would eat it as they usually do. Early Monday morning before light, Alex wanted out on the patio as part of his usual morning ritual. As soon as he went out he did a quick u-turn and desperately wanted in with a look of terror in his eyes. That alone is not necessarily cause for concern, since the most minor of events can terrorize Alex. However, as I let him in I caught a glimpse of two eyes looking back at me from under the bird feeder. Yep, it was a raccoon. We got another light on and watched. It turned out there were four racoons, three normal size and one larger. They were eating the seeds and nuts off the ground. They also overturned and inspected the bucket on the patio that had contained the seed. It had been rinsed but not scrubbed, so probably still smelled like peanuts. They did not make it to a full blown attack on either of the feeders. When I opened the sliding door to attempt a picture they took off over the fence. We had to remove seven baby raccoons and its mother from our chimney in April 2001, but have not seen any since then. Needless to say we cleaned up the yard a bit better before going to bed Monday night. We have not seen any evidence of their return, but Alex now refuses to go out until it is light.
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